HMAKING her acting debut in Transformers was literally a baptism of fire for Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.

The 24-year-old from Devon was on set in LA only three weeks after getting a phone call asking if she was interested in the part.

She didn’t even realise she was in one of the leading roles.

“I actually thought I was casting for a very small role, maybe a cameo role,” says the Victoria’s Secret underwear model.

“I wasn’t really sure what it was and then when it transpired to be this very huge role and I was actually going to be the new female lead, it definitely turned me upside down and back to front.

“It was a big roller coaster of emotions and excitement and absolute terror at times as well!”

Not least because some of her stunts involved flames.

Her co-star Shia LaBeouf explains: “Rosie would get nervous around fire and when we did the car scenes she got a little scared. I coaxed her and encouraged her.”

But Rosie adds: “I love being physical and I loved doing the action stuff. It was so exciting. There’s gunfire and explosions and it looks like the end of the world and you’re running through fire and jumping over broken cars and you’ve got director Michael Bay screaming down the megaphone ‘run faster!’.

“My trainer taught me how to run. That sounds silly, but you have to run properly on a film set.

“When I first got there, they asked me ‘can you run?’ and I was like ‘Well yeah, of course I can run, what are you talking about?’.

“Apparently it’s not as easy as it looks, running in a movie, and then I was given a lovely pair of heels so that made it a little more difficult and quite dangerous at times!”